Google Maps offers a New Feature: Easy Stars

Update 5/23: The Easy Stars are now visible in List view as well as Maps view

There is a new interface feature in Google Maps that allows a user to quickly favor a business listing. A user must be logged in and viewing the listings in the Maps view mode where an outlined star will be visible immediately after the business name.

Upon selecting the star it turns yellow and a the starred listing appears in the user’s MyMaps view (thanks to Stever of AxeMedia for the clue). The yellow star also appears on the listing in the main Map viewing area.

The feature allows a quick and easy way to create a MyMap list of favorite businesses or places in Maps for whatever purpose. Or as Miriam Ellis points out it could also be used to create a list of worsts.

At this point the MyMap is only visible to the logged in user that added the stars but it would be nice if this MyMap’s starred list could used to quickly create sharable public & embedable MyMap.

It is not clear whether the stars impact ranking.

Please consider leaving a comment as your input will help me (& everyone else) better understand and learn about local.

Adding a favorite does not appear to artificially change rankings for the user who did the favoriting (personalized results). I tested it on a business that ranks near top in the 10 pack, but is page 2 inside Maps itself. No change in it’s placement in any results for me.

Goto maps.google.com, search on and find the business with the star and then click on the star to “turn it off”. Its value, as became clear after this article was written is to provide a way to more easily find your favorite listings on your mobile phone